Every year, more people come to the Chicago Botanic Garden than the year before. People
come because the Garden’s beautiful display gardens and natural areas, and its compelling
programs offered in Glencoe and throughout Cook County, respond to the needs of real
people. The Garden’s offerings are possible only because of the extraordinary talents of its
management, staff, and volunteers. Their passion for the Garden and those they serve
drives them to excel in their work. We who enjoy and benefit from the Garden are deeply in
their debt.
The Chicago Botanic Garden is the product of a uniquely successful public-private partnership
between the Forest Preserves of Cook County, on whose land the Glencoe campus sits,
and the Chicago Horticultural Society, which built and has operated the Garden since 1968,
opening the Garden gates in 1972. Even as the Garden works harder each year to serve the
citizens of Cook County, its stature grows within the United States and around the world.
As one of the most vital and vibrant living museums anywhere, the Garden attracts people
from every walk of life, many of whom become members of its extended “family.”
Last year, during the fourth year of its ten-year strategic plan, “Keep Growing,” the Garden
made significant strides toward realizing the plan’s objectives. This is important because
only by meeting the plan’s goals can the Garden continue to cultivate the next generation of
environmental stewards, plant scientists, urban farmers, and horticultural therapists, and
expand its campus to include both new and improved display gardens.
With funds primarily from bonds issued by the Forest Preserves, the Garden renovated its
café and reopened it as the Garden View Café earlier this year, with an expansive new look,
streamlined service, and a locally sourced menu. With generous support from the Forest
Preserves, the Illinois Department of Transportation, and the Litowitz Family Foundation, the
Garden completed plans for an addition to the North Branch Trail, construction of which
began this spring.
The Garden also moved forward on the two remaining principal capital objectives of the
strategic plan: the Kris Jarantoski Campus, named in honor of Executive Vice President and
Director Kris Jarantoski’s guiding vision, and the Learning Campus. The Jarantoski Campus,
on the south end of the Garden, will provide badly needed new greenhouses and
nurseries; the Learning Campus at the north end, with an innovative Education Center,
will enhance the Garden’s ability to teach students of every age, ability, and background
about plants and environmental science. Both campuses will feature interactive and
aesthetically prominent new gardens to engage visitors and promote horticultural excellence
and education, respectively.

2

Last June, the Garden embarked upon Plants for Life 2020, a fundraising campaign to raise
the funds necessary to complete the Jarantoski and Learning Campuses and grow the
Garden’s endowment to four times its operating budget. Spurred by a matching grant from
the State of Illinois, the Garden’s friends in the private sector already have committed enough
funds to enable work to begin this year on new nurseries, and go a long way
toward achieving the total amount required to complete both campuses. But $39 million
remains to be raised: $9 million for the Learning Campus and $30 million for the
Jarantoski Campus. Only when sufficient funds are in hand (80 percent of the capital cost of
each project) can construction begin.
Gifts to the Garden, in any amount, are needed and valued. The Garden may be
supported through current gifts, pledges, and planned giving, and there are many
opportunities to recognize those gifts. The Garden’s development staff welcomes the
opportunity to respond to requests for information. The Garden’s achievements in its
relatively short history, and its promising future, have inspired the continuing support of
its many friends among individuals, families, foundations, corporations, and governments.
That support, along with support from new friends, is essential if the Garden is to fully meet
the goals of its strategic plan. We cannot fail to do so.
Many public gardens do one or two things well. Very few do everything the Chicago Botanic
Garden does well: offering inspiring gardens and natural areas, engaging in plant
conservation science and research, and providing a lifetime of opportunities for people
to learn about and appreciate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life. We owe it
to ourselves and future generations to complete the new Jarantoski and Learning
Campuses, and to grow our endowment, so that our Garden will continue into the future,
second to none anywhere.
All three of the Garden’s boards—the Board of Directors, the Woman’s Board of the
Chicago Horticultural Society, and the Guild of the Chicago Botanic Garden—work very
hard throughout each year to sustain the Garden’s present and future. I know that I speak
for all who enjoy and benefit from the Garden when I extend unbridled thanks to the
Garden’s boards and the entire Garden family—staff, volunteers, members, and donors—for
all they do every day to make the Garden preeminent among public gardens everywhere.

With gratitude and warm regards,

Robert Finke
Chairman of the Board

3

Sophia Shaw | President & CEO

Spring is a time for renewal, but also offers an opportunity for reflection. As I write this
letter, we have just come through one of the most difficult winters in the history of Chicago.
During these welcome days of warmth and regrowth, I have taken time to reflect on myself,
on my family and friends, and on the past accomplishments and future promise of the
Chicago Botanic Garden. Specifically, my thoughts have turned to the importance of
nurture—the process of providing care and comfort, and encouraging growth and
development. The Chicago Botanic Garden is a place where nature and nurture work
together, both in ways that are measurable and in ways impossible to quantify.

By every statistical measure, 2013—the fourth year of our
strategic plan, “Keep Growing”—was impressive.
For the first time in the Garden’s history, we welcomed more than one million visitors.
We were supported by a stellar and increasingly diverse staff of 250 full-time employees and
480 “seasonals,” members of three boards, and 2,067 volunteers who gave 107,235 hours
of service to the Garden. Nearly 5,000 adults took classes at the Joseph Regenstein, Jr.
School of the Chicago Botanic Garden, and we provided programs and field trips for more
than 120,000 children, parents, students, and teachers.
Our littlest learners haven’t yet started to walk; at the other end of the spectrum, in 2013
the Garden trained 28 master’s students and 11 doctoral students through our graduate
program in plant conservation biology, offered in partnership with Northwestern University.
We also mentored a select group of 70 Chicago Public Schools teens through our Science
Career Continuum, four of whom went on to receive full scholarships to attend college.
Last year as well, more than 200 Garden scientists, graduate students, and interns conducted
plant-related research, and we received our largest National Science Foundation grant
to date—$1.5 million. The Garden trained nearly 100 college graduates for conservation
internships in 15 western states, in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management. Through our Windy City Harvest program, we mentored
more than 90 at-risk teens and trained over 50 hard-to-employ adults; 89 percent of
the latter have found employment. Last year, Windy City Harvest participants grew and
harvested 92,000 pounds of produce, earning $165,000 in produce sales. Five new urban
farmers began working at “incubator farm” plots in Chicago through Windy City Harvest,
thanks to a grant by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA. The Garden also
launched the Midwest’s largest “farm-to-fork” rooftop farm, encompassing 20,000 square
feet at McCormick Place.

4

Yet, every day, the Chicago Botanic Garden nurtures people
in ways not easily quantified.
In 2013 Garden visitors listened, nodded, and danced to the varied rhythms of our musical
programs. They experienced the joy of art, through Garden exhibitions and classes, through
events like the Antiques & Garden Fair and the Art Festival, and through the Garden’s
compelling design and horticultural excellence. People walked the Garden paths every
single day in 2013, from dawn to past dusk, appreciating the Garden’s beauty, accessibility,
and safety in all seasons, and increasing well-being with every step. The powerful healing
effects of plants provided skills and comfort to veterans, people along the autism spectrum,
and low-vision participants in the Garden’s horticultural therapy programs.
Part of nurturing and being nurtured is listening. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, we can
literally listen to the sounds of nature: the rustle of plants, the whisper of breezes, the trickle,
spray, or bubble of water. Also, the Garden’s horticulturists and scientists listen to and
monitor what plants and healthy ecosystems “tell” us they need to grow and thrive, and
offer the care needed. On a larger scale, figuratively, the Garden is listening to the planet,
helping to conserve, protect, and restore native habitats and the essential benefits they
provide at home and around the globe.
Further, Garden members have talked to us, and we have listened, and responded. In 2010,
the Garden took a public stance on the subject of climate change and other critical
environmental initiatives; last year, we offered new approaches to making science come
alive in the classroom, developing a new curriculum that examines the impact of climate
change, and becoming the nation’s first botanic garden to hold a virtual field trip through
Google’s Connected Classrooms program.

How can we ensure that the Garden will continue to nurture
plants and people into the future?
I believe the answer rests in enhancing the ways we care for those who visit the Chicago
Botanic Garden. After all, without our visitors—many of whom become active members,
volunteers, employees, and donors like you—the Garden would not exist.
We must continue to set and achieve goals—both those that are measurable as well as
those that, though powerfully effective, don’t translate into statistics.

continued

5

Sophia Shaw | President & CEO

In 2013, partly to encompass these distinct yet complementary
goals, we adopted a new mission statement: We cultivate the
power of plants to sustain and enrich life.
To fulfill this mission, we must invest in the Garden, through the measurable commitment
of our financial support and through the priceless value of our presence in the Garden
family as participants, advisors, mentors, and innovators.
We must grow our endowment to four times our operating budget, and complete the
remaining projects of our “Keep Growing” strategic plan:
• The Kris Jarantoski Campus will feature expanded plant production facilities and an
innovative garden that will allow us to continue growing and caring for the plants that inspire
us, and serve our scientists in their conservation research.
• The Learning Campus will be complete when the Education Center and new garden take
shape, and will greatly expand our ability to offer both familiar and new ways of inspiring and
training through science, environmental sustainability, and horticulture.
Our goals are ambitious, yet grounded in thoughtful and thorough planning. We have
faced some very challenging times, such as the recession that began in 2008, and
persevered—just as we have emerged from last winter’s “polar vortex” stronger and more
positive than before. We remain, as always, grateful to the Forest Preserves of Cook County,
our greatest supporter and recipient of the 2013 Hutchinson Medal.
Ten years from now, we will look back at this time as a period when we reflected on our
progress, celebrated our success, articulated our belief in the power of nature to nurture,
accepted our responsibility to nurture nature, and vowed to complete the goals that we set
for ourselves in our strategic plan.

On behalf of the Chicago Botanic Garden,

Sophia Shaw
President & CEO

6

7

Chicago Botanic Garden Financials
Executive Summary
The Chicago Botanic Garden’s operations thrived once again from both a programmatic and
a financial standpoint in 2013, the fourth year of its “Keep Growing” strategic plan. The Garden
set an annual attendance record for the fifth consecutive year, and for the first time in its
history welcomed more than one million visitors. Virtually all of the Garden’s revenue-producing
activities exceeded the 2012 results, and expenses continued to be closely monitored.

Garden Attendance
Attendance

1 Million Visitors

1,000,000
950,000
900,000
850,000
800,000
750,000
700,000
650,000

675,000

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Operating Results
The Garden ended 2013 with an operating surplus of $681,000, following surpluses of
$889,000 and $566,000 in 2012 and 2011, respectively. Operating revenue increased by
more than $1.2 million, or 4 percent, to $32 million in 2013.
When board-designated and restricted net assets are included, total revenue was $50.7 million,
an increase of $6.8 million from the 2012 total of $43.9 million. The Garden’s institutional
investments (primarily its endowment) increased by more than $10 million, or approximately
16 percent, for the year.
Operating expenditures in 2013 were $31.3 million, an increase of $1.4 million, or 5 percent,
from 2012, due primarily to expanded grant-funded science programs and higher costs to
maintain the gardens and facilities on the Garden’s 385-acre campus.
With the inclusion of depreciation, interest expense, and other designated expenditures that
are not included in the operating budget, total expenses for 2013 were $40.5 million, an
increase of 2 percent from the $39.8 million incurred in 2012.

8

Chicago Botanic Garden Financials
Change in Net Assets
The Garden’s statement of financial position reflects an increase in net assets of 17 percent
to $154.9 million in 2013 from $132.6 million at the end of 2012. The increase was due largely
to unrealized gains in the fair values of its investments, as well as strong operating and
fundraising results.
2013
operating budget revenue and other support total $32 MILLION
ALLOCATION FROM
LONG-TERM INVESTMENTS
4%

The $92.9 million of unrestricted net assets represented the majority of total net assets,
while $35.9 million
were temporarily restricted, and $26.1 million were SPONSORSHIPS
permanently restricted.
VISITOR PROGRAMS
AND OPERATIONS
This compares to $85.113%million of unrestricted net assets, $22.1 million 3%
of temporarily restricted
net assets, and
$25.4 million of permanently restricted net assets in 2012.
FOREST PRESERVES
NET ASSETS USED
6%

OF COOK COUNTY

30%
GARDENS AND GROUNDS
ADMINISTRATION
Total assets increased
in 2013, an increase
28%
12%from $192.9 million in 2012 to $213 million
of $20.1 million. Total liabilities decreased by $2.2 million to $58.1 million at year-end.
DEVELOPMENT
9%

MEMBERSHIP
3%

2013

SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS
18%

operating budget expenditures total $31.3 million
EDUCATION AND
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
19%

VISITOR PROGRAMS
AND OPERATIONS
11%

GARDENS AND GROUNDS
28%

ADMINISTRATION
12%

DEVELOPMENT
9%
SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS
18%
MEMBERSHIP
3%

EDUCATION AND
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
19%

VISITOR PROGRAMS
AND OPERATIONS
11%

9

Chicago Botanic Garden Financials
Summary
Each year, the Chicago Botanic Garden engages more people through its beauty and the
strength of its public programs. In 2013, it distilled the scope of its expanding work in
horticulture and plant conservation, encompassing education, science, urban agriculture
jobs training, and horticultural therapy, into its updated mission statement: We cultivate the
power of plants to sustain and enrich life. With the support of its board, staff, volunteers,
members, visitors, donors, and the Forest Preserves of Cook County, the Garden will
continue to honor the ideals upon which its foundation was established, evolve as a public
institution and recognized leader in plant conservation education and research, and
enhance its standing as one of the leading botanic gardens of the world.
Complete audited financial statements for the Chicago Botanic Garden, including the auditorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
report, for the year ending December 31, 2013, are available at chicagobotanic.org/financialreport.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
As of December 31, 2013
(in millions of dollars)
ASSETS
Cash
Pledges receivable
Accounts receivable
Investments
Other assets
Property and equipment

CONTRIBUTORS
LIFETIME BENEFACTORS
We are grateful to the following donors,
whose extraordinary generosity has built
and transformed the Garden. Their gifts
totaling $1,000,000 or more have created
beautiful landscapes and have established
the Garden as an international center
for horticulture, plant science research,
and education.
$10,000,000 and above
Forest Preserves of Cook County
The Regenstein Foundation
United States Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Land Management

$2,500,000 to $4,999,999
Anonymous (1)
Astellas USA Foundation
Buehler Family Foundation
The Chicago Community Trust
Duane E. and Barbara L. Dickey
The Guild of the Chicago Botanic Garden
Patricia S. and William J. Hagenah
The Harris Family Foundation
Caryn and King Harris
Katherine Harris
Toni and Ron Paul
Linda and Bill Friend
Stephanie and John Harris
Leslie Riedel and Scott Friend
Pam and Joe Szokol
Hunter Family
Illinois Department of Commerce and
Economic Opportunity
The Kresge Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. John J. Louis, Jr.
John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation
Malott Family
The Negaunee Foundation
Searle Family Trust
Mr. and Mrs. Howard J. Trienens
United States Army Corps of Engineers
United States Institute of Museum
and Library Services
Mr. and Mrs. Morrison Waud

THE SCIENCE INITIATIVE
Plant conservation research and education
are at the heart of the Science Initiative.
The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant
Conservation Science Center provides
Chicago Botanic Garden scientists with
more tools to address the environmental
challenges we face today and trains those
who assume that responsibility in the
future. The following individuals,
corporations, foundations, and government
agencies have generously supported the
Science Initiative with gifts of $1,000
or more through December 31, 2013.
$5,000,000 and above
Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation

PLANTS FOR LIFE 2020: THE
KEEP GROWING PLAN
Plants for Life 2020: The Keep Growing
Plan identifies capital and endowment
fundraising goals as stated in the Chicago
Botanic Garden’s Keep Growing Strategic
Plan 2010–20.
The long-term well-being of the Garden
depends on an ongoing and predictable
stream of financial support. As the Garden
grows in attendance and relevance, more
endowment funding will ensure the Garden
remains both a beautiful place and a leader
in plant science research and education.
Major capital goals:
• Shoreline Gardens and Restoration.
The reconstructed North Lake shoreline
features more than 120,000 native
plants to help stabilize shoreline soils.

• The Learning Campus, including an
Education Center, the Grunsfeld Children’s
Growing Garden, the Kleinman Family
Cove, and a new garden.
The Learning Campus addresses the
need for stronger science education
for all students, including those from
underserved communities.

• The Kris Jarantoski Campus, including
greenhouses, nursuries, and garden.
A new modern structure is essential to
maintaining horticultural excellence,
delivering a superior four-season visitor
experience, and supporting cuttingedge plant conservation research.

$1,000 to $2,499
Evanston Bicycle Club
Mr. and Mrs. John L. Howard
Mr. and Mrs. William U. Knox

*Deceased

CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN
– ENDOWED FUNDS 2013
Endowed funds provide a secure foundation
for the future. The Garden is honored by
the thoughtful generosity of those who have
established or contributed to the following
named endowed funds. Permanent
endowments may be established with
gifts of $50,000 or more.
Bacon Sensory Garden Endowment
Mr. William T. Bacon, Jr.
Martha Bacon Hartfiel
Buehler Fund for the Enabling Garden
Buehler Family Foundation
Buehler Fund for Horticultural Therapy
Buehler Family Foundation

INDIVIDUAL ANNUAL GIVING
The Chicago Botanic Garden is a complex
institution with diverse financial needs.
The following individuals thoughtfully
supported Garden programs, operations,
capital improvements, and endowment
with gifts of $250 or more between
January 1 and December 31, 2013.

INSTITUTION AND
GOVERNMENT GIVING
Corporations, foundations, government
agencies, and organizations provide critical
support for the Chicago Botanic Garden’s
broad range of public programs, scientific
research, and operational needs.
The following generous gifts were made
between January 1 and December 31, 2013.
$1,000,000 and above
Forest Preserves of Cook County
• Capital Improvement Bonds
• General Operating Support
• Plants of Concern
The Grainger Foundation
• Education Center
• Green Youth Farm
United States Department of the
Interior, Bureau of Land Management
• A ssessing Impacts of Climate Change
on Rare Plants
• Conservation and Land Management
Internship Program
• Seeds of Success
Woman’s Board of the Chicago
Horticultural Society
• General Operating Support
• Growing the Future

$250,000 to $499,999
Anonymous (1)
• Production Greenhouses and Nursery

Helen V. Froehlich Foundation
• Communications Campaign
• The Orchid Show
Josephine P. & John J. Louis Foundation
• Science Initiative
National Science Foundation
• Acquisition of Conservation
Geographic Information Systems
Instrumentation
• Acquisition of Seed X-Ray Machine
• A ssembling the Pleurocarp Tree of Life:
Resolving the Rapid Radiation Using
Genomics and Transcriptomics
• Exceptionally Well-Preserved Early
Cretaceous Seed Plants From Mongolia
• The Interplay of Genetic and
Numerical Dynamics in Severely
Fragmented Prairie Populations of
Echinacea angustifolia
• L andscapes of Linalool - Scent-Mediated Diversification of Flowers and
Moths Across Western North America
• Phylogeny and Revision of
Artocarpus (Moraceae)
• Plant Biology and Conservation
Research Experience for Undergraduates
— from Genes to Ecosystems
• Reassembling Pollinator Communities
to Promote Pollination Function at the
Landscape Scale
United States Department of
Agriculture, National Institute of
Food and Agriculture
Beginning Farmer and
Rancher Development Program
• Windy City Harvest
North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education Program
• Translating Sustainable Urban
Agriculture to the Backyard Garden
in Metropolitan Chicago
University of Vermont and State
Agricultural College
• Specialty Crops Research Initiative
United States Department of the
Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service
• Conservation and Land Management
Internship Program
• Implementing Adaptive Management
for Control of Phragmites australis on
National Wildlife Refuges in the
Northeast Region and Model
Development to Support the Integrated
Waterbird Management and
Monitoring Program
• National Wildlife Refuge System Seeds of
Success: Involving Volunteers in Native
Seed Collection for Restoration Projects
• Th reat Assessment and Mitigation
in Dune Landscapes: Pitcher’s Thistle,
Invasive Plants, and Control of
Biocontrol Weevils

CORPORATE PARTNER
VOLUNTEERS
We are grateful to the following Corporate
Partners for encouraging their employees to
share their time and effort on group
volunteer days at the Chicago Botanic
Garden in 2013.
Astellas USA Foundation
Abbott Laboratories
AbbVie
Allstate Insurance Company
BMO Harris Bank
Capital One
ComEd
Discover Financial Services
ITW
Mondelēz International Foundation
PwC